Hurricane Elsa raced toward Haiti and the Dominican Republic on Saturday, where it threatened to unleash flooding and landslides before aiming at Cuba and Florida.

The storm was located about 395 miles east-southeast of Isla Beata, Dominican Republic, and was moving west-northwest at 29 mph.

It had maximum sustained winds of 80 mph. The hurricane is expected to become a tropical storm after hitting Cuba, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

The long-term forecast track showed it heading toward Florida as a tropical storm by Tuesday morning, but some models would carry it into the Gulf or up the Atlantic Coast.

In Haiti, authorities used social media to alert people about the hurricane and urged them to evacuate if they lived near water or mountain flanks.